July 23, 2019 • 46 mins
I had the great privilege recently of meeting up with two rather amazing people while in New York City. Dr. Jordan Kassalow, and Rabbi Jennifer Krause teamed up to write a sensational book, Dare to Matter, Your Path to Making a Difference NOW. Jordan is the founder of Vision Spring, a "compassionate capitalism" venture that has restored sight, livelihoods, and hope to millions of people the world over. Jen is a beloved rabbi, whose words of wisdom and guidance Jordan tapped into to tell his story. It's a good one. If you've ever wondered how your unique gifts and talents could make a difference in the world, read Dare to Matter, you'll wonder no more! Thanks for joining us on this episode of LOVE SOMEONE! ~ Delilah
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mmm, hello, my friend. Welcome to another edition of my podcast,
Love Someone with Delilah. Now, when we started doing these podcasts,
we kind of had a hidden agenda. It's not hidden
(00:22):
at all. It's it's a very open agenda, and that
is I wanted to talk to people. I want to
interview people. I want to hear from people who are
using their gifts and their talents and their skills to
change the world, one heart at a time. See, I believe,
(00:46):
and I know a lot of people do not share
the same faith I have, and that's okay. But I
believe that we are created beings, that we're not accidents,
and that each of us is created with a unique
mixture of talents and skills unlike anyone else on the planet.
(01:10):
Even if you're an identical twin, even if you share
identical DNA, your personality is unique to you. There's nobody
else exactly like you alive today, nor has there ever been,
nor will there ever be. And as scientists and people
(01:34):
collect more and more DNA, they're proving that to be true,
that that we're very very similar in like of our makeup,
but very very very different and unique. When you take
your gifts talents and skills and use them to make
the world a better place. It is completely magical. There
(01:59):
is nobody like you. There will never be anyone like you.
You are unique, You're precious, and you have something to
share with the world. I don't know what that something is.
I'm guessing you may not know or how to use it.
And this podcast series Love Someone is meant to encourage
(02:23):
you to a figure out what your gift is or gifts,
multiple gifts, and be figure out where that talent, that gift,
that skill intersects with the world's great need. Today on
this podcast series, I'm catching up with a Doctor Jordan's
(02:46):
castloh and Rabbi Jennifer krauss Uh. Jennifer started out being
a patient of Dr Jordan's. Together they have offered a
book that was my May book Club pick, Dare to
Matter Your Path to Making a Difference Now. So everything
(03:06):
I was just talking about figuring out how to take
your uniqueness and use it to make the world a
better place, Well, they wrote a whole book about that,
and we're going to talk to them in a minute
and find out how Jordan's discovered how to use his
gift to change the world. For good. But before we
(03:31):
start this this conversation, before we get into the meat
of Dare to Matter, I'm gonna share with you the
folks who make this podcast possible. We want to give
a shout out to our podcast sponsor, the Home Depot.
I stinkin love the Home Depot. It's spend so much
(03:52):
time there. They make painting any room of our home,
or every room of your home if you're really ambitious,
that much easier. This time of year, you can have
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paint department. You'll get a colorful new experience there, from
(04:14):
picking colors to simulating what you're finished rooms might look like.
And every person I've ever met in the Home Depot's
paint department is extremely friendly. They want you to have
a great experience the Home Depot. More saving, more doing Today,
unloved someone I'm catching up with Dr Jordan Castle Oh
(04:35):
and Rabbi Jennifer Krauss, authors of a book that was
in our book club in May. Dare to Matter Your
path and making a difference. Now, Dr George, I'm just
gonna call you Jordan's but to your name in Rabbi Krouse,
thank you for taking the time out of your busy
schedules to come down to the fancy, schmancy I heart studios.
(04:56):
Aren't these amazing? This is quite a setup here, it is.
It is a little different from the studio and normally
work out of I wanted to meet it with you
guys in person. I mean, we were going to do
this over the phone, but Diana set it up so
we could meet in person because I think it is
so important, the message in your book and the message
in your lives, which is there to matter now, don't
(05:19):
put it off, don't don't wait until you have all
your ducks lined up before you step out of your
comfort zone and make a difference. And the whole reason
I have this podcast, Love Someone, is because that's my
whole message is right now, today, yesterday. We need people
(05:40):
to care and to matter and to invest their heart
into whatever it is that they're called to invest their
heart into. But so many people I know are like, well,
when I get everything lined up, when I you know,
when my career takes off, when my kids are grown,
when my house is paid off, when I get a
house when I'm not in a blah blah blah blah
blah blah law uh. And your book is so inspirational
(06:04):
and that you're saying no, now is the time to care.
And I love that each chapter ends on a dare.
So we're gonna talk Jordan about how you got involved
and invested Jen, how he brought you on board to
tell the story and to help write the story and
what your hope of your passion is for getting people
(06:27):
off their couch and out of their comfort zone and
into projects that really matters. So welcome, Thank you so much.
It's wonderful to do with you. It's good to be
with you. So Jordan, how how did you find your
mission in life of providing vision for people in developing countries?
(06:47):
Because that's that's what vision that's what your your mission is. Yes, correct,
That's what Vision Spring is all about. And the story
was a somewhat circuitous one, like most of our stories,
It started in an unly place in the northern reaches
of Alaska. I was twenty three years old. I was
a mountain climber and there I was climbing a mountain,
(07:07):
rain slashing my face and as I got to the
top of this incredible mountain. The world unfolded in front
of me and was conspiring to tell me that I
didn't matter, that I had no significance. And I hated
that message. Whoa, whoa, that that is not what I expected, uh,
that message to be that you didn't matter. When you're
(07:31):
in such an incredible wilderness, you feel insignificant sometimes, and
so I had that feeling, or that I had the
feeling the universe was telling me that. But as a
twenty three year old person, I rebelled against that notion,
and I remember screaming at the wind saying that I
did matter. Back to the matter, though, was I didn't
really know how. So I came down from the mountain
(07:52):
with a different mindset though that it didn't matter what
I did, but that I was going to make a
difference in the world, that my life was going to
be dedicated to making a difference in the world, whatever
chosen path. It was six months later, fast forward, I
had I had started my training as an eye doctor,
and I joined an organization that brought eye care to
(08:13):
underserve populations in Latin America, and my first patient was
a seven year old boy and he was from the
School for the Blind. He thought he was blind. Everyone
thought he was blind. And when we looked at his eyes,
we realized all he needed was a really strong pair
of eyeglasses. And when I put those glasses on his
face and he saw for the first time, it was
a moment to change both of our lives. I gave
(08:34):
him his vision, he gave me mine. As Mark Twain says,
the two most important days of your life for the
day that you're born and the day that you find
out why. And that was the day that I found
out why. Seeing this little boy come to life. Realizing
that he wasn't indeed blind, but that with a pair
(08:54):
of corrective lenses he would be able to see, sets
you on a path that has led you to some
pretty interesting places. How many countries have you worked in.
I've worked in over forty countries and have visited over seventy.
We have a Vision Spring established, an organization that can
really go wherever the need is, and unfortunately, the need
(09:17):
of this issue area is huge. There are over a
billion people in the world who are visually impaired or blind,
not because of a terrible eye disease, but just because
they need a simple pair of eyeglasses, a pair of
glasses that we know we can source in China for
between fifty cents and a dollar and a half. A
pair of glasses, the technology of which is over seven
(09:39):
years old. But yet a billion people on this planet
still have visual impairment or blindness because they don't have
access to something so simple. So Vision Spring is trying
to right that wrong and fix that injustice by creating
business models that provide eye care services and low cost eyeglasses.
Two people who earned between one and four dollars a day.
(09:59):
So that begs the question, why am I wearing a
pair of glasses that cost over two hundred dollars. That's
a whole other story, one that we're going to get into,
or one that you're not allowed to talk about. I
can talk about it, no, no problem. A lot of
the fact, a lot of the reason a pair of
glasses cost so much is because, in a way, glasses
have been almost over manufactured. They have expensive brand names
(10:23):
on them, they have very high end plastics and materials,
both in the frames and the lenses, and so the
glasses that you wear are very different in terms of
material than what the ones that we sell. Although the
ones that we sell are equally as functional. So we've
basically almost reversed engineered the glasses, stripped out all of
the unnecessaries that have driven the cost up to four
(10:46):
or uh and have brought the product back down to
a level where the average person who earns two three
dollars a day can buy them. So you're in forty
countries now and me what you told me about the
little seven year old boy who gave you the vision
of what your life was going to be? Ah, then
(11:09):
what happened after that? How did you say? How did
you go from my student, you know, learning to be
an eye doctor to changing the lives of millions of people? Well,
when we returned to Boston after that experience, we're going
to school in Boston. I wasn't. Yes, I was an
optometry school in Boston. So headed back to Boston and
(11:30):
did some research and realized that that boy was not alone.
And I shared the statistics already with your listeners. Over
a billion people needed a pair of glasses, and so
I started to think about, well, how can how can
we change that? Because having a group of eye doctors
going down for a week, although our intentions were pure
to serve people. It wasn't very scalable, it wasn't very sustainable,
(11:54):
and so we needed different ways to to approach the problem.
And so after graduating from school, I volunteered a year
of time to work in India and I worked at
an eye hospital called the Aravant Eye Hospital, because I
wanted to learn from people who were basically creating sustainable,
scalable eye care solutions, and this hospital was becoming famous
(12:16):
for doing that. They employed what we call compassionate capitalism,
so they used the power of the market. They used
the power of capitalism, but for social purpose and good.
Two thirds of the services that they delivered were at
no or very low cost, and one third was at
normal or high cost for the richer people. And there
was a cross subsidization model. So I saw that as
(12:38):
a really powerful model. And I also saw in working
across the world that what people needed more than anything
was opportunity. And started to to note that a lot
of people who we were serving were falling out of
the workforce because they couldn't see to to work. As
they got into their forties, their near vision started to fail.
(12:59):
So as we eavers, tailors, artistans, people who required their
eyes and hands to earn a living. They were starting
to fall out of the workforce. On the flip side,
we also identified that there were a lot of people
who were underemployed or unemployed. So so my kind of
light bulb moment was, well, why can't we just train
those local people who want to work and want opportunity
(13:20):
to be self reliant, train them on how to screen
for vision problems, sell the simple eyeglasses that you or
I could buy at CVS, which represents half of the
problem in the world. Half the people in the world
to need glasses just need the kind that you can
buy over the counter in the drug store. Readers, readers
that I have way too many pair of because I
buy them and lose them and find them exactly and
(13:41):
so those readers. You don't need to be a rocket scientist.
And we created a training program where we could train
a local person, whether they had fourth grade education or
eighth grade education, on how to screen for presbyopia, determine
what power the persona screen for presbyopia, which is the
inability to focus up close, so that that's the condition
(14:03):
that you need readers for. So screen for if you're
over the age of forty screen for if you're over
the age of forty and you can't see it close.
Because I went to the doctor I was forty two,
and I said, I don't understand. I've had perfect vision
in my entire life. I could see, I can see
eagles flying in the sky. You can see the prey
they have in their claws. I can't see the menu.
He said, how old are you? Forty two? He goes, A, ha,
(14:26):
did the start two years ago? So you were one
of the It's like a magic number. You hit four
oh and your eyes go exactly. But you were privileged
to be able to solve that problem. So we trained
these people how to sell these simple readers. Uh. And
so that was the that was the original light bulb moment.
Why couldn't we train these local people to start small
(14:47):
jobs selling eyeglasses to their neighbors who needed them to
see at an affordable price. Affordable so it's not impacting
their life negatively correct creating livelihoods for the seller and
so aiming livelihoods for the customer. So it was really
an economic development program using a simple health product. So
it was helping the economies and the individual lives of
(15:09):
all these people, but using just the simple health product
that hadn't been distributed in most parts of the world.
Brilliant And Jen, how did you get involved with this
whole thing? Because because your name is on the cover
of this book, dare to matter? How did you get involved?
You've been so quiet, Rabbi, Well, I've been I've been
(15:29):
listening to my to my co author here, which is
what what we've We've spent about six years doing from
from inception of this idea to two I s B
A number of the book. Um. I was Jordan's patient
for a decade, has in checking your eyes and he
(15:52):
giving you a prescription exactly he did he saw you
the two dollar special or did you do what I
did and go through your insurance? UM? Insurance doesn't cover
my glasses or my contact lenses. Uh, so I guess
you hawk the lenses. I know, out of pocket for
ten years, um, and and still am. I went to
(16:14):
see this guy last week also because I was having
trouble with my with my near vision and I needed. Interestingly,
we've been working together. We see each other multiple times
a week, especially now in the last weeks on the
book tour. And I got a reminder from Jordan's office
that I had not had a regular eye exam in
(16:34):
more than eighteen months. So just a pro tip to
to your listeners, don't co author a book with your optometrist,
or your vision will actually suffer for it. Even though
I've neglected my my vision, working with Jordan's on on
this book has given me an entirely different vision. Um
(16:56):
When you work closely with someone, especially around a topic
like changing the world, it changes your mindset and a
lot of the book is about that as well. People
think that in order to make a difference in the
world that they have to find a big, big problem
and then they have to or have a big degree,
or have a big degree, or have a big bank account,
(17:18):
or have loads and loads of time. And it's or
have a platform. I mean, you're a rabbi, you're a
pretty big platform, or have a platform. But the fact
of the matter is that it's about really looking into
the heart of who you are and then letting what
is at the heart of who you are radiate into
the world. And so it's very simple things. It's it's
(17:39):
simple questions you ask yourself daily. It's checking in with
yourself and and really not making big tectonic shifts in
your life. But it's about constantly aligning your life with
your highest vision for what you want your life to
be and what you want to stand for. What's the
(17:59):
legs see that you want to leave behind when when
you leave this earth. I heard someone say one time
it is far better to leave a legacy than an inheritance,
and I took that to heart. So my kids are
going to be really sad when I die because they're
going to discover that the inheritance went into feeding children
(18:20):
while I was here. But I think that's so true.
It's so important to leave a legacy of love, not
just a legacy, because some people can leave a negative legacy,
or a legacy of wealth, or a legacy of fame.
But to leave a legacy of love. Amen. Yes, it's
an incredible thing. I remember watching um the Bruce Springsteen
(18:43):
on on Broadway came came to Netflix and he talked
about something I haven't been able to forget. He talked
about choosing whether you're going to be a ghost or
an ancestor right, and it was I can't take credit,
thank you the boss, the boy is the boss. Well
that and you know the ripped jeans and the music
(19:04):
that just rocks your soul, and then of course having
a Broadway show that also completely rocks your soul. It
was he was just telling stories about why he wrote
the music that that he's written, and what was going
on in his life, and that do you want to
be a ghost or do you want to be an ancestor?
Ancestors let the people that follow them stand in their light.
(19:28):
Ghost haunts you, right, It's so good, it's super powerful.
And I think you know, a lot of us are
trained to start thinking about legacy when we're older. So
I'm forty seven, um. Last week at my exam, I
said to Jordan's, I think it might be time for readers,
(19:49):
and Jordan's, being the optimist, said, you know what, hang
in there. We're going to keep fighting the good fight.
So no readers this go around. But people don't offer
tend to think about the legacy that they're going to
lead until they're sort of at our point in life
and and kind of at the midpoint and thinking further
(20:09):
down the road and if they have children. But we
really encourage people to start thinking about legacy when you're young,
because death is a part of life. And we all
have a finite amount of time to be here on
this earth. Our lives are precious and unprecedented. As Rabbi
(20:31):
Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, our lives are so precious,
and we are not in control of how much time
we have, but we are in control of of what
we want our name to stand for, what kind of
work we want to do in the world, and the
way that we want people to think about us when
(20:52):
when we're gone. And there's nothing morbid about that. That's
just about being human and it helps us align our
lives with that highest vision that we have for ourselves.
Dr Castlo and Rabbi Krause, thank you. Thank you for
taking time out of your busy schedules to sit down
with me in the studio today. I want to continue
(21:15):
this conversation after a quick acknowledgement to one of our
podcast sponsors. I'm talking to Dr Jordan's Castlow and Rabbi
Jennifer Krauss about their book Dare to Matter. We're going
to continue our conversation now, so each one of the
ten chapters in the book ends with a dare. Share
some of the dares with our listeners. The simple things
(21:38):
that they can do to step out of their comfort zone.
You know, the average American watches eight hours of television
a day exactly. So think about one of the dares
is we dare people to to take an inventory of
their of their days and of their time over the
course of a week and then over the course of
(22:00):
a month, and do it in this simple way. At
the end of the day, ask yourself, what did I
do today that really needed me? What did I do
today that really fed me, that nourished my being? The
things that don't really really need you, you don't need
to be doing the things that aren't feeding your soul.
(22:23):
Doesn't mean that we don't have have twos in our life, right.
We have commitments and responsibilities. It doesn't matter whether we
like it don't like it. That's life and that's being
a grown up. But there are things that we do
without being aware of it that really do eat up
our time. So if we take stock of how we're
(22:45):
spending our days, in our weeks and our months, we
might be able to take a little bit of that
time that we're doing things that don't need us, don't
really really need us, and don't feed us and repurpose it.
Imagine what we could do with those eight hours hours. Well,
I know what I do with those eight hours. People
are like, wow, how do you have a farm, and
(23:06):
how do you raise kids? And how do you have
a career? How do you juggle it all? I said,
I don't watch TV, I don't spend hours on social
media because time is more precious than money. Time is
more precious than money. And I don't see anybody taking,
you know, twenty dollar bills and lighting them on fire
and and just letting the ashes go in the wind.
(23:29):
You hang onto that. And yet we we just we've
burned through our hours doing stuff like you said, that
doesn't need us, doesn't feed us, but entertains us. You know.
One of the other dares, which we hope will help
people get away from that mindset is what we call
to develop your central narrative, which is what do you
(23:50):
want your life to stand for? And so as I
was thinking through through my life, my central narrative really
boiled down to the essence of our book, which is
that I wanted my life to be rich with family,
and I wanted to be able to provide my family
with the same um things that my folks provided me with,
(24:11):
which was a good education, a safe home, and a
nice life. But I also wanted to live for something
bigger than myself, so that I could leave the world
a better place because I was in it. And my
central narrative was the challenge of how to integrate those
two very human needs into one life. So by having
a central narrative, you forced yourself to think about what's
(24:32):
really important to you and to hold on to that
no matter what. We also talk about it in the
book as sort of finding your thread. So the wind
may blow and you may be blown away from that thread,
but always hold onto it because life can get tough.
But you if you have essential narrative and a common
thread and a north star, things that you know really
stand for what you want your life to stand for,
(24:54):
then you'll never get off course. So early on in
your life, think about what your central nart out of is.
Why are you here? What kind of change do you
want to make in the world, What kind of person
do you want to be? Who do you want to
be remembered as? Uh? And that that's another day that
we have in the book. So how can somebody figure
that out? Your twenty two, your twenty three. You're going
(25:15):
to college, or you're in the military, or you're starting
a new family, or you're overwhelmed with a baby. How
do you look inside and figure out what your truth
is or what you'r you call it central narrative, what
your soul is saying, who you are and what your
mission is for you. It was climbing a mountain, yeah,
Although it was in climbing those mountains and having the luxury,
(25:39):
if you will, of being in silent places for extended
periods of time that I learned how to listen to
my deep inner voice and to discover myself and to
really discover what's important to me. And Jen and I
talked about this that there is sort of a crisis
of people losing connection with that inner voice. And often
if you're not listening to what you're self is telling you,
(26:01):
you end up getting the wrong life because you start
asking the wrong questions. And so how can you try
to It scares me, I have to be honest, It
scares me how many young women are only listening or
focusing on their selfies on social media and comparing themselves
to other beautiful women or airbrushed women, and it seems
(26:25):
like their whole focus is on being cute, being adorable, posing,
taking pictures. How how is uh a parent of society?
Can we help steer them away from that outer voice
that's screaming lies and helped them to hear that inner
voice that I believe as God speaking to us, you know,
(26:47):
through that, through your heart, through your soul, beautifully said
exactly right. I think we spend a lot of time
and it's not even it's not even just kids. Although
I'm I'm so grateful that I didn't grow up in
in a time of social media. Yeah, me too, because
who boy, would there be a lot of stuff posted it? Wow? Well,
(27:11):
how do you think I can relate to so many
people on my show each night? It's not because you know,
I did never take a walk on the wild side.
We all need to do that. We need to explore.
And I actually think kids, even though they can see
so much more of the world than than we were
(27:32):
able to see because of social media, they actually aren't
doing much exploring. They're doing a lot of observing, watching, gazing,
and imitating. And that's the part I think that that
can be so toxic because they're suddenly chasing after lives
(27:53):
that aren't necessarily the life that they want, and they're
not necessarily the life that they are meant to lead,
created to lead. And one of the things that's really
important is something that we call preparing your heart. Preparing
your heart is just believing that the meaning in life
(28:15):
isn't somewhere out there in the universe and you're suddenly
trying to find it acquire it. We come hardwired with
with meaning a man. That is so true. Every human
being born is hardwired with gifts and talents. And when
we're not plugged into it, and when we're not activating it,
(28:39):
we're anxious, we're depressed, we feel less than when we
understand that it is as close to us as are
very insides, and all we have to do is just
unlock that that chamber of meaning inside of ourselves. It
completely changes the way we walk through the world, the
(29:01):
way we feel about ourselves, the way we feel about
other people, the way we feel about our lives. And
so in a way, when we unlock that, and then
we find also the peace that tells us what the
world needs from us, what the world needs from you
and me and everyone that is totally unique from somebody else.
(29:25):
When we find it, and we're drawn outside of ourselves
through action to do something for other people. By healing
the world, we we start healing ourselves. It's true. When
you focus on somebody else, somebody else's need, and you
use your energies to make the world a better place,
your world suddenly becomes a much better place. There's a
(29:48):
great story and inherited Jewish tradition that we're supposed to
have a note in in each pocket. In one pocket
it says, I'm but dust and ashes. Okay, that's the
humility of of being a human being, is we were mortal.
In the other pocket, you should have a little piece
of paper that reads the world was created for me.
(30:09):
That's the eye matter pocket. And and that's why when
Jordan's told me that story about his he calls it
his dust in the wind moment. Now there's some people
who are listening. You remember that Kansas so the camel
how awkwardly? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so when Jordan told
me that, I instantly thought about two pockets. Two pockets,
(30:32):
I am but dustin ashes and the world was created
for me. And sometimes we really we we need to
reach into that pocket a little more. When the world
is telling us, hey, you're you're dust in the wind.
You are dust and ashes that we need to go huh,
Because I've got this note in the other pocket, and
(30:54):
it says the world was created for me, and I'm
going to do something. Well, I'm here. You just wait,
you just watch. Also, as you prepare your heart, there's
a better chance that as you developed inward, the outside
world is going to start to conspire to help you
find your purpose and meaning. So when I was on
that mountaintop in Alaska, I came down with a prepared heart.
(31:17):
I was looking. I was almost like an antenna to
try to figure out how I could matter, how I
could make my life meaningful. And when I met that
seven year old boy, if I didn't come to him
with that hunger, it might have just been a cool
story that I was telling to people, but it wouldn't
have fundamentally changed the direction of my life. It was
a message that moment, that miracle of meeting that boy
(31:38):
was a message for a prepared heart. Is in my
heart was that antenna that was looking for that miracle.
And so going walking through the world with a prepared
heart will also increase your chances of finding purpose and
meaning in the world. So preparing your heart, getting alone,
being quiet, turning off distractions, figuring out what your passions are.
(32:01):
Do you like to sew, do you like to paint,
Do you like to read? Do you like to Do
you like animals? Are you passionate about, you know, helping animals?
What are your passions? And then how does somebody uh
take that first step to say, Okay, I'm ready. I
think that I was meant to teach, or I believe
(32:23):
I was meant to help young children who are stuck
in the foster care system. I think I'm meant to
mentor young men so they don't end up in prison.
I'm a recovering addict of whatever, and I think I'm
supposed to help young people to navigate their life so
they don't fall into drugs or alcohol or pornography. How
do you take that first step? But what is your
(32:44):
advice to somebody who has a prepared heart? They think
they know what their passion is, Now what do they
do with it? Well, that is already the It's the
first step, and the second step, which is start where
you are, where your planet, grow, where you're planted. You
determine what your what are your talents, what are your
(33:08):
essential gifts? Then if you've identified the problem, if you
if you've identified that thing that that pulls at your heart,
that makes you come alive more than any other thing,
get really close to that problem. Learn everything that you
can about it. Look in your existing community, your family members,
(33:31):
your coworkers, your friends, start talking about how much you
care about this issue, and they might know someone who
knows someone who can connect you to a place where
you can start putting your essential talents and gifts to
work on that problem. And just keep drilling down until
(33:53):
you find that that particular part of the not that
you can take apart and and unravel. And it's as
long as you're dreaming in the light. Which is something
else that we talked about in the book Fine Partners.
You don't have to change the world all by yourself,
and as a matter of fact, you can't. You cannot
(34:13):
change the world by yourself. So dream in the light,
just start talking to people. One of our dares also
is you know the bit where you go and you
meet someone for the first time and you use instead
to sort of fill the awkward silence um that that
many of us have when when we meet a new
person will say so what do you do? Right, and
(34:37):
what we mean is what do you do to make
a living? But we're not talking about what do you
do to make a life? So we dare people. The
next time that someone says so what do you do
that you answer I'm trying to matter and then kind
of see where the conversation takes you. And the next
(34:57):
time you feel yourself getting ready to say, oh, so
what do you do, instead say if you could solve
any problem in the world, what would it be? And
I think would be surprised if we just shift our
conversations are interactions with each other, um, we we might
even start feeling more connected to the people right in
(35:20):
our midst and we might be able to team up
with people and and start working on that problem. That's
that's really animating our spirit and telling us, hey, this
is your work, this is the thing you were meant
to do. Can you imagine if when you got on
a plane people said what do you do that matters?
Or what are you doing to make the world a
(35:41):
better place? Instead of what do you do for a living?
You certainly have more interesting conversations. We no doubt believe
that well, I'm so passionate about Point Hope, the the
charity that I started almost twenty years ago, that people
don't even have a chance to talk about it anything else.
When I sit down next with them on a plane,
(36:02):
it's like, You're gonna hear about Point Hope, and I'm
going to figure out how I can use your gifts
to help kids. Uh. And I've met some amazing people.
One of our board members was sitting next to me
on a plane and you know, found out she had
all sorts of connections and she has children and she's
passionate about children. I'm like, Okay, we are so going
to tap into you, because that's how you build, that's
(36:26):
how you grow, that's dreaming in the light, that's how
you do it. And it also takes down another problem
that we have in in our country and really in
the world. We are a hyper connected society, and we're
the least connected to each other than we've ever been.
Right this the suicide rate in the United States is
(36:48):
the highest it's been in half a century. We have
a loneliness epidemic. Imagine what we could do if we
could just connect to each other on our most basic
human level, which is we all want to do something
to make the world a better place. You wouldn't You
couldn't run into another person who if you really sat down,
(37:10):
whether it's on a plane or a train, or it's
in a coffee shopping, can even be with someone you've
known for a long time, but you don't really talk
about these things. Imagine how much more connected we would
feel if we if we just started talking about how
we want to make a difference, that we remind us
that we have so much more in common then than
(37:31):
we do things that separate us. Very very true. So
you're in how many countries forty countries? Now we've distributed
glasses to over forty countries. When we started that first year,
we helped eight hundred people, and then it went to
eight thousand and eighty thousand and eight hundred thousand, and
(37:52):
this year will serve over one point four million people
in twenty three countries. That is awesome. If somebody want
to get involved with Vision Spring, if they're like, Okay,
I'm not an eye doctor, but my my father was blind,
So how can I what can I do in my community,
(38:12):
or what can I do to further this project? How
would they get in touch with you and what could
they do well? They can always get in touch with
me directly by email. It's It's Jordan's dot Cassolo at
vision spring dot org. And we're interested in people helping
in any way we can. As Jen said, we have
to dream in the light. We have to bring all
(38:33):
people into this problem. It's a billion person problem. We
need as many hands on deck as possible. And people
can get involved in a whole slew of different ways,
from as simple as it costs US less than five
dollars to serve each person with a pair of glasses.
So you can put a pair of glasses on a
child's face in Ghana, or in India or Vietnam for
(38:54):
less than five dollars. So if with a five dollar
donation we can help one person, with a hundred dollar donation,
we can help a whole classroom with children. With a
thousand dollar donation, we can help a whole school. So
what if somebody says, I don't have any money to donate,
I'm living on a budget, but I want to help.
So whatever their skills, maybe if they're a writer, they
can write an article about Vision Spring in their local newspaper,
(39:16):
or they can tell their their friends on social media
about the organization. They can help spread the word. Did
you know that the leading cause of visual impairment in
the world is that people just don't have a pair
of eyeglasses? And did you know the eyeglasses really only
cost a dollar? And if they can help just spread
that message far and wide, that is a great service
(39:36):
and a great help to our organization because most people
don't know that. They don't even think about it. Yeah,
you don't think about it. There's so many things we
don't think about. We don't think about the fact that
there are four thousand kids in foster care in America
and that only five percent will ever be adopted. We
don't think about that. We don't think about the fact
that of the boys in foster care for eighteen months
(39:57):
or longer will end up in prison. That we're just
sending them from one horrible, horrible situation to uh institution
and they'll never have a chance at a at a
good life. We don't think about that because we're busy.
We're too busy to think about it. But we need
to think about these truths when we have time. I'd
love to introduce you to a friend of mine, Ned Breslin,
(40:18):
who's one of the most dynamic social entrepreneurs addressing the
foster care situation. He's brilliant and I would love him. Well.
Thank you so much for being here for writing Dare
to Matter. Uh, you guys are wonderful. And I pray
that people take the dares. I hope they read the book,
(40:39):
and I hope that each chapter they do the dares,
and that we can get a whole nation, a whole
world of people using their gifts to change the world,
one heart at a time. Amen to that, big Amen,
Thank you so much, thank you. That's exactly why we
wrote the book. That's why I wrote my book. Then
(41:00):
that's why you wrote. My sisters like, oh my gosh,
this you gotta read this book. You got to meet
these people because they're they're doing it. They're they're changing
the world for good, and they're inviting other people to
change the world for good. And I love the fact that, Ah,
that you recognize that each person has a unique gift,
(41:22):
a unique gift, and that maybe you know yours vision
minus children. For some people, it's animals, you know, see creatures, whales,
whatever it is. Dare to Make a difference, step out,
you know, on faith and say, Okay, what can I do?
How can I how can I clean up the environment?
(41:44):
How can I leave a smaller carbon footprint? How can
I raise my children to be more loving, more engaged?
How can I get them off social media and into nature.
Everybody's got a different gift, and I love that you
you talk about that in the book, and that you
invite people to figure out what that is. But we've
all been created in the image of God. This is
(42:06):
what we learned in Genesis, which is a sacred text
to multiple religions, that it transcends everything that divides us.
Were created in in the image of God, which means
that we all have a spark of the divine in us.
And it is amazing. Imagine Just wake up in the
morning and have that be the first thing that you think.
(42:29):
The world was created for me. The world was created
for me to use my uniqueness, my divinity to change it.
I'm built this way. Just start your day that way
and see and see how it changes. We're all eternal
beings wrapped in flesh. That blows my mind. You see
(42:50):
them for what they truly are. When people call into
my show, oh, my gosh. So many people said, how
can you still do this after so many years? Aren't
you bored? I'm like, are you kidding me? Everybody's got
such a fascinating story. It's uncovering the layers of that
story that that makes my job fun on the radio.
That's because every single person you encounter is is an
(43:13):
event that will you know when they say one night only,
We're all a one night only event when when we
leave the earth there will never again be a carbon
copy of who we are. We we are so essential
to the life of this world because when we're gone,
that one special ingredient, that one miracle that we bring,
(43:37):
we take it with us, so we need to leave
it here, so we need to use it, use it.
That's right, and we all have it. Well. I'm glad
you climb the mountain Jordan's I'm glad that the earth
scream to you and its enormity. You do feel very small,
like when you fly in an airplane and you look down.
(43:57):
At first you can see the cars, then you can
only see the bill things. Then you can you can't
see individuals, and it can make you feel insignificant. I'm
glad you screamed back, Oh, I do matter, and I'm
glad you found that that sparked that gift, that passion,
and that you've changed the lives of over a million
people by giving them the gift of sight. Thank you
(44:20):
for saying that, and thank you for being bold enough
tend to partner with him and help him write the book.
It was easy to do. It was easy to do
because I was inspired by Jordan's I was inspired by
Vision Spring and in those stories, but I also saw
our story. I saw the human story in Jordan's story.
And so my dear is that everybody listening to this
(44:42):
podcast takes your dare and start saying what do you
do that matters? What do you do that impacts the world.
And when they're asked how are you or what do
you do? Or who are you? They answer from that
divinity within them and they say, I'm somebody that's changing
the world by providing vision for kids and underdeveloped countries
(45:04):
or kids right here in America. I'm somebody that cares
about our planet. I'm somebody that cares about our public
school systems that are failing our kids. I'm somebody that
cares about foster kids. Whatever it is that we start
that conversation and start engaging in what really matters. That's
the world I want to live in. All right, thank
(45:26):
you for being here. God bless you both on your
journey and the book. Pick it up, Dare to Matter.
It's available everywhere. Your path to making a difference now,
and I love that now is italicized. I love that
because because we are not promised tomorrow, we can't go
back and un do yesterday. We're given this gift of
(45:47):
today and today we can all make a difference. Let's
do it. Let's do it. Routine fo
Mmm, hello, my friend. Welcome to another edition of my podcast,
Love Someone with Delilah. Now, when we started doing these podcasts,
we kind of had a hidden agenda. It's not hidden
(00:22):
at all. It's it's a very open agenda, and that
is I wanted to talk to people. I want to
interview people. I want to hear from people who are
using their gifts and their talents and their skills to
change the world, one heart at a time. See, I believe,
(00:46):
and I know a lot of people do not share
the same faith I have, and that's okay. But I
believe that we are created beings, that we're not accidents,
and that each of us is created with a unique
mixture of talents and skills unlike anyone else on the planet.
(01:10):
Even if you're an identical twin, even if you share
identical DNA, your personality is unique to you. There's nobody
else exactly like you alive today, nor has there ever been,
nor will there ever be. And as scientists and people
(01:34):
collect more and more DNA, they're proving that to be true,
that that we're very very similar in like of our makeup,
but very very very different and unique. When you take
your gifts talents and skills and use them to make
the world a better place. It is completely magical. There
(01:59):
is nobody like you. There will never be anyone like you.
You are unique, You're precious, and you have something to
share with the world. I don't know what that something is.
I'm guessing you may not know or how to use it.
And this podcast series Love Someone is meant to encourage
(02:23):
you to a figure out what your gift is or gifts,
multiple gifts, and be figure out where that talent, that gift,
that skill intersects with the world's great need. Today on
this podcast series, I'm catching up with a Doctor Jordan's
(02:46):
castloh and Rabbi Jennifer krauss Uh. Jennifer started out being
a patient of Dr Jordan's. Together they have offered a
book that was my May book Club pick, Dare to
Matter Your Path to Making a Difference Now. So everything
(03:06):
I was just talking about figuring out how to take
your uniqueness and use it to make the world a
better place, Well, they wrote a whole book about that,
and we're going to talk to them in a minute
and find out how Jordan's discovered how to use his
gift to change the world. For good. But before we
(03:31):
start this this conversation, before we get into the meat
of Dare to Matter, I'm gonna share with you the
folks who make this podcast possible. We want to give
a shout out to our podcast sponsor, the Home Depot.
I stinkin love the Home Depot. It's spend so much
(03:52):
time there. They make painting any room of our home,
or every room of your home if you're really ambitious,
that much easier. This time of year, you can have
every window and your home wide open to let the
paint dry with the summer breeze. Visit the Home Depot's
paint department. You'll get a colorful new experience there, from
(04:14):
picking colors to simulating what you're finished rooms might look like.
And every person I've ever met in the Home Depot's
paint department is extremely friendly. They want you to have
a great experience the Home Depot. More saving, more doing Today,
unloved someone I'm catching up with Dr Jordan Castle Oh
(04:35):
and Rabbi Jennifer Krauss, authors of a book that was
in our book club in May. Dare to Matter Your
path and making a difference. Now, Dr George, I'm just
gonna call you Jordan's but to your name in Rabbi Krouse,
thank you for taking the time out of your busy
schedules to come down to the fancy, schmancy I heart studios.
(04:56):
Aren't these amazing? This is quite a setup here, it is.
It is a little different from the studio and normally
work out of I wanted to meet it with you
guys in person. I mean, we were going to do
this over the phone, but Diana set it up so
we could meet in person because I think it is
so important, the message in your book and the message
in your lives, which is there to matter now, don't
(05:19):
put it off, don't don't wait until you have all
your ducks lined up before you step out of your
comfort zone and make a difference. And the whole reason
I have this podcast, Love Someone, is because that's my
whole message is right now, today, yesterday. We need people
(05:40):
to care and to matter and to invest their heart
into whatever it is that they're called to invest their
heart into. But so many people I know are like, well,
when I get everything lined up, when I you know,
when my career takes off, when my kids are grown,
when my house is paid off, when I get a
house when I'm not in a blah blah blah blah
blah blah law uh. And your book is so inspirational
(06:04):
and that you're saying no, now is the time to care.
And I love that each chapter ends on a dare.
So we're gonna talk Jordan about how you got involved
and invested Jen, how he brought you on board to
tell the story and to help write the story and
what your hope of your passion is for getting people
(06:27):
off their couch and out of their comfort zone and
into projects that really matters. So welcome, Thank you so much.
It's wonderful to do with you. It's good to be
with you. So Jordan, how how did you find your
mission in life of providing vision for people in developing countries?
(06:47):
Because that's that's what vision that's what your your mission is. Yes, correct,
That's what Vision Spring is all about. And the story
was a somewhat circuitous one, like most of our stories,
It started in an unly place in the northern reaches
of Alaska. I was twenty three years old. I was
a mountain climber and there I was climbing a mountain,
(07:07):
rain slashing my face and as I got to the
top of this incredible mountain. The world unfolded in front
of me and was conspiring to tell me that I
didn't matter, that I had no significance. And I hated
that message. Whoa, whoa, that that is not what I expected, uh,
that message to be that you didn't matter. When you're
(07:31):
in such an incredible wilderness, you feel insignificant sometimes, and
so I had that feeling, or that I had the
feeling the universe was telling me that. But as a
twenty three year old person, I rebelled against that notion,
and I remember screaming at the wind saying that I
did matter. Back to the matter, though, was I didn't
really know how. So I came down from the mountain
(07:52):
with a different mindset though that it didn't matter what
I did, but that I was going to make a
difference in the world, that my life was going to
be dedicated to making a difference in the world, whatever
chosen path. It was six months later, fast forward, I
had I had started my training as an eye doctor,
and I joined an organization that brought eye care to
(08:13):
underserve populations in Latin America, and my first patient was
a seven year old boy and he was from the
School for the Blind. He thought he was blind. Everyone
thought he was blind. And when we looked at his eyes,
we realized all he needed was a really strong pair
of eyeglasses. And when I put those glasses on his
face and he saw for the first time, it was
a moment to change both of our lives. I gave
(08:34):
him his vision, he gave me mine. As Mark Twain says,
the two most important days of your life for the
day that you're born and the day that you find
out why. And that was the day that I found
out why. Seeing this little boy come to life. Realizing
that he wasn't indeed blind, but that with a pair
(08:54):
of corrective lenses he would be able to see, sets
you on a path that has led you to some
pretty interesting places. How many countries have you worked in.
I've worked in over forty countries and have visited over seventy.
We have a Vision Spring established, an organization that can
really go wherever the need is, and unfortunately, the need
(09:17):
of this issue area is huge. There are over a
billion people in the world who are visually impaired or blind,
not because of a terrible eye disease, but just because
they need a simple pair of eyeglasses, a pair of
glasses that we know we can source in China for
between fifty cents and a dollar and a half. A
pair of glasses, the technology of which is over seven
(09:39):
years old. But yet a billion people on this planet
still have visual impairment or blindness because they don't have
access to something so simple. So Vision Spring is trying
to right that wrong and fix that injustice by creating
business models that provide eye care services and low cost eyeglasses.
Two people who earned between one and four dollars a day.
(09:59):
So that begs the question, why am I wearing a
pair of glasses that cost over two hundred dollars. That's
a whole other story, one that we're going to get into,
or one that you're not allowed to talk about. I
can talk about it, no, no problem. A lot of
the fact, a lot of the reason a pair of
glasses cost so much is because, in a way, glasses
have been almost over manufactured. They have expensive brand names
(10:23):
on them, they have very high end plastics and materials,
both in the frames and the lenses, and so the
glasses that you wear are very different in terms of
material than what the ones that we sell. Although the
ones that we sell are equally as functional. So we've
basically almost reversed engineered the glasses, stripped out all of
the unnecessaries that have driven the cost up to four
(10:46):
or uh and have brought the product back down to
a level where the average person who earns two three
dollars a day can buy them. So you're in forty
countries now and me what you told me about the
little seven year old boy who gave you the vision
of what your life was going to be? Ah, then
(11:09):
what happened after that? How did you say? How did
you go from my student, you know, learning to be
an eye doctor to changing the lives of millions of people? Well,
when we returned to Boston after that experience, we're going
to school in Boston. I wasn't. Yes, I was an
optometry school in Boston. So headed back to Boston and
(11:30):
did some research and realized that that boy was not alone.
And I shared the statistics already with your listeners. Over
a billion people needed a pair of glasses, and so
I started to think about, well, how can how can
we change that? Because having a group of eye doctors
going down for a week, although our intentions were pure
to serve people. It wasn't very scalable, it wasn't very sustainable,
(11:54):
and so we needed different ways to to approach the problem.
And so after graduating from school, I volunteered a year
of time to work in India and I worked at
an eye hospital called the Aravant Eye Hospital, because I
wanted to learn from people who were basically creating sustainable,
scalable eye care solutions, and this hospital was becoming famous
(12:16):
for doing that. They employed what we call compassionate capitalism,
so they used the power of the market. They used
the power of capitalism, but for social purpose and good.
Two thirds of the services that they delivered were at
no or very low cost, and one third was at
normal or high cost for the richer people. And there
was a cross subsidization model. So I saw that as
(12:38):
a really powerful model. And I also saw in working
across the world that what people needed more than anything
was opportunity. And started to to note that a lot
of people who we were serving were falling out of
the workforce because they couldn't see to to work. As
they got into their forties, their near vision started to fail.
(12:59):
So as we eavers, tailors, artistans, people who required their
eyes and hands to earn a living. They were starting
to fall out of the workforce. On the flip side,
we also identified that there were a lot of people
who were underemployed or unemployed. So so my kind of
light bulb moment was, well, why can't we just train
those local people who want to work and want opportunity
(13:20):
to be self reliant, train them on how to screen
for vision problems, sell the simple eyeglasses that you or
I could buy at CVS, which represents half of the
problem in the world. Half the people in the world
to need glasses just need the kind that you can
buy over the counter in the drug store. Readers, readers
that I have way too many pair of because I
buy them and lose them and find them exactly and
(13:41):
so those readers. You don't need to be a rocket scientist.
And we created a training program where we could train
a local person, whether they had fourth grade education or
eighth grade education, on how to screen for presbyopia, determine
what power the persona screen for presbyopia, which is the
inability to focus up close, so that that's the condition
(14:03):
that you need readers for. So screen for if you're
over the age of forty screen for if you're over
the age of forty and you can't see it close.
Because I went to the doctor I was forty two,
and I said, I don't understand. I've had perfect vision
in my entire life. I could see, I can see
eagles flying in the sky. You can see the prey
they have in their claws. I can't see the menu.
He said, how old are you? Forty two? He goes, A, ha,
(14:26):
did the start two years ago? So you were one
of the It's like a magic number. You hit four
oh and your eyes go exactly. But you were privileged
to be able to solve that problem. So we trained
these people how to sell these simple readers. Uh. And
so that was the that was the original light bulb moment.
Why couldn't we train these local people to start small
(14:47):
jobs selling eyeglasses to their neighbors who needed them to
see at an affordable price. Affordable so it's not impacting
their life negatively correct creating livelihoods for the seller and
so aiming livelihoods for the customer. So it was really
an economic development program using a simple health product. So
it was helping the economies and the individual lives of
(15:09):
all these people, but using just the simple health product
that hadn't been distributed in most parts of the world.
Brilliant And Jen, how did you get involved with this
whole thing? Because because your name is on the cover
of this book, dare to matter? How did you get involved?
You've been so quiet, Rabbi, Well, I've been I've been
(15:29):
listening to my to my co author here, which is
what what we've We've spent about six years doing from
from inception of this idea to two I s B
A number of the book. Um. I was Jordan's patient
for a decade, has in checking your eyes and he
(15:52):
giving you a prescription exactly he did he saw you
the two dollar special or did you do what I
did and go through your insurance? UM? Insurance doesn't cover
my glasses or my contact lenses. Uh, so I guess
you hawk the lenses. I know, out of pocket for
ten years, um, and and still am. I went to
(16:14):
see this guy last week also because I was having
trouble with my with my near vision and I needed. Interestingly,
we've been working together. We see each other multiple times
a week, especially now in the last weeks on the
book tour. And I got a reminder from Jordan's office
that I had not had a regular eye exam in
(16:34):
more than eighteen months. So just a pro tip to
to your listeners, don't co author a book with your optometrist,
or your vision will actually suffer for it. Even though
I've neglected my my vision, working with Jordan's on on
this book has given me an entirely different vision. Um
(16:56):
When you work closely with someone, especially around a topic
like changing the world, it changes your mindset and a
lot of the book is about that as well. People
think that in order to make a difference in the
world that they have to find a big, big problem
and then they have to or have a big degree,
or have a big degree, or have a big bank account,
(17:18):
or have loads and loads of time. And it's or
have a platform. I mean, you're a rabbi, you're a
pretty big platform, or have a platform. But the fact
of the matter is that it's about really looking into
the heart of who you are and then letting what
is at the heart of who you are radiate into
the world. And so it's very simple things. It's it's
(17:39):
simple questions you ask yourself daily. It's checking in with
yourself and and really not making big tectonic shifts in
your life. But it's about constantly aligning your life with
your highest vision for what you want your life to
be and what you want to stand for. What's the
(17:59):
legs see that you want to leave behind when when
you leave this earth. I heard someone say one time
it is far better to leave a legacy than an inheritance,
and I took that to heart. So my kids are
going to be really sad when I die because they're
going to discover that the inheritance went into feeding children
(18:20):
while I was here. But I think that's so true.
It's so important to leave a legacy of love, not
just a legacy, because some people can leave a negative legacy,
or a legacy of wealth, or a legacy of fame.
But to leave a legacy of love. Amen. Yes, it's
an incredible thing. I remember watching um the Bruce Springsteen
(18:43):
on on Broadway came came to Netflix and he talked
about something I haven't been able to forget. He talked
about choosing whether you're going to be a ghost or
an ancestor right, and it was I can't take credit,
thank you the boss, the boy is the boss. Well
that and you know the ripped jeans and the music
(19:04):
that just rocks your soul, and then of course having
a Broadway show that also completely rocks your soul. It
was he was just telling stories about why he wrote
the music that that he's written, and what was going
on in his life, and that do you want to
be a ghost or do you want to be an ancestor?
Ancestors let the people that follow them stand in their light.
(19:28):
Ghost haunts you, right, It's so good, it's super powerful.
And I think you know, a lot of us are
trained to start thinking about legacy when we're older. So
I'm forty seven, um. Last week at my exam, I
said to Jordan's, I think it might be time for readers,
(19:49):
and Jordan's, being the optimist, said, you know what, hang
in there. We're going to keep fighting the good fight.
So no readers this go around. But people don't offer
tend to think about the legacy that they're going to
lead until they're sort of at our point in life
and and kind of at the midpoint and thinking further
(20:09):
down the road and if they have children. But we
really encourage people to start thinking about legacy when you're young,
because death is a part of life. And we all
have a finite amount of time to be here on
this earth. Our lives are precious and unprecedented. As Rabbi
(20:31):
Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, our lives are so precious,
and we are not in control of how much time
we have, but we are in control of of what
we want our name to stand for, what kind of
work we want to do in the world, and the
way that we want people to think about us when
(20:52):
when we're gone. And there's nothing morbid about that. That's
just about being human and it helps us align our
lives with that highest vision that we have for ourselves.
Dr Castlo and Rabbi Krause, thank you. Thank you for
taking time out of your busy schedules to sit down
with me in the studio today. I want to continue
(21:15):
this conversation after a quick acknowledgement to one of our
podcast sponsors. I'm talking to Dr Jordan's Castlow and Rabbi
Jennifer Krauss about their book Dare to Matter. We're going
to continue our conversation now, so each one of the
ten chapters in the book ends with a dare. Share
some of the dares with our listeners. The simple things
(21:38):
that they can do to step out of their comfort zone.
You know, the average American watches eight hours of television
a day exactly. So think about one of the dares
is we dare people to to take an inventory of
their of their days and of their time over the
course of a week and then over the course of
(22:00):
a month, and do it in this simple way. At
the end of the day, ask yourself, what did I
do today that really needed me? What did I do
today that really fed me, that nourished my being? The
things that don't really really need you, you don't need
to be doing the things that aren't feeding your soul.
(22:23):
Doesn't mean that we don't have have twos in our life, right.
We have commitments and responsibilities. It doesn't matter whether we
like it don't like it. That's life and that's being
a grown up. But there are things that we do
without being aware of it that really do eat up
our time. So if we take stock of how we're
(22:45):
spending our days, in our weeks and our months, we
might be able to take a little bit of that
time that we're doing things that don't need us, don't
really really need us, and don't feed us and repurpose it.
Imagine what we could do with those eight hours hours. Well,
I know what I do with those eight hours. People
are like, wow, how do you have a farm, and
(23:06):
how do you raise kids? And how do you have
a career? How do you juggle it all? I said,
I don't watch TV, I don't spend hours on social
media because time is more precious than money. Time is
more precious than money. And I don't see anybody taking,
you know, twenty dollar bills and lighting them on fire
and and just letting the ashes go in the wind.
(23:29):
You hang onto that. And yet we we just we've
burned through our hours doing stuff like you said, that
doesn't need us, doesn't feed us, but entertains us. You know.
One of the other dares, which we hope will help
people get away from that mindset is what we call
to develop your central narrative, which is what do you
(23:50):
want your life to stand for? And so as I
was thinking through through my life, my central narrative really
boiled down to the essence of our book, which is
that I wanted my life to be rich with family,
and I wanted to be able to provide my family
with the same um things that my folks provided me with,
(24:11):
which was a good education, a safe home, and a
nice life. But I also wanted to live for something
bigger than myself, so that I could leave the world
a better place because I was in it. And my
central narrative was the challenge of how to integrate those
two very human needs into one life. So by having
a central narrative, you forced yourself to think about what's
(24:32):
really important to you and to hold on to that
no matter what. We also talk about it in the
book as sort of finding your thread. So the wind
may blow and you may be blown away from that thread,
but always hold onto it because life can get tough.
But you if you have essential narrative and a common
thread and a north star, things that you know really
stand for what you want your life to stand for,
(24:54):
then you'll never get off course. So early on in
your life, think about what your central nart out of is.
Why are you here? What kind of change do you
want to make in the world, What kind of person
do you want to be? Who do you want to
be remembered as? Uh? And that that's another day that
we have in the book. So how can somebody figure
that out? Your twenty two, your twenty three. You're going
(25:15):
to college, or you're in the military, or you're starting
a new family, or you're overwhelmed with a baby. How
do you look inside and figure out what your truth
is or what you'r you call it central narrative, what
your soul is saying, who you are and what your
mission is for you. It was climbing a mountain, yeah,
Although it was in climbing those mountains and having the luxury,
(25:39):
if you will, of being in silent places for extended
periods of time that I learned how to listen to
my deep inner voice and to discover myself and to
really discover what's important to me. And Jen and I
talked about this that there is sort of a crisis
of people losing connection with that inner voice. And often
if you're not listening to what you're self is telling you,
(26:01):
you end up getting the wrong life because you start
asking the wrong questions. And so how can you try
to It scares me, I have to be honest, It
scares me how many young women are only listening or
focusing on their selfies on social media and comparing themselves
to other beautiful women or airbrushed women, and it seems
(26:25):
like their whole focus is on being cute, being adorable, posing,
taking pictures. How how is uh a parent of society?
Can we help steer them away from that outer voice
that's screaming lies and helped them to hear that inner
voice that I believe as God speaking to us, you know,
(26:47):
through that, through your heart, through your soul, beautifully said
exactly right. I think we spend a lot of time
and it's not even it's not even just kids. Although
I'm I'm so grateful that I didn't grow up in
in a time of social media. Yeah, me too, because
who boy, would there be a lot of stuff posted it? Wow? Well,
(27:11):
how do you think I can relate to so many
people on my show each night? It's not because you know,
I did never take a walk on the wild side.
We all need to do that. We need to explore.
And I actually think kids, even though they can see
so much more of the world than than we were
(27:32):
able to see because of social media, they actually aren't
doing much exploring. They're doing a lot of observing, watching, gazing,
and imitating. And that's the part I think that that
can be so toxic because they're suddenly chasing after lives
(27:53):
that aren't necessarily the life that they want, and they're
not necessarily the life that they are meant to lead,
created to lead. And one of the things that's really
important is something that we call preparing your heart. Preparing
your heart is just believing that the meaning in life
(28:15):
isn't somewhere out there in the universe and you're suddenly
trying to find it acquire it. We come hardwired with
with meaning a man. That is so true. Every human
being born is hardwired with gifts and talents. And when
we're not plugged into it, and when we're not activating it,
(28:39):
we're anxious, we're depressed, we feel less than when we
understand that it is as close to us as are
very insides, and all we have to do is just
unlock that that chamber of meaning inside of ourselves. It
completely changes the way we walk through the world, the
(29:01):
way we feel about ourselves, the way we feel about
other people, the way we feel about our lives. And
so in a way, when we unlock that, and then
we find also the peace that tells us what the
world needs from us, what the world needs from you
and me and everyone that is totally unique from somebody else.
(29:25):
When we find it, and we're drawn outside of ourselves
through action to do something for other people. By healing
the world, we we start healing ourselves. It's true. When
you focus on somebody else, somebody else's need, and you
use your energies to make the world a better place,
your world suddenly becomes a much better place. There's a
(29:48):
great story and inherited Jewish tradition that we're supposed to
have a note in in each pocket. In one pocket
it says, I'm but dust and ashes. Okay, that's the
humility of of being a human being, is we were mortal.
In the other pocket, you should have a little piece
of paper that reads the world was created for me.
(30:09):
That's the eye matter pocket. And and that's why when
Jordan's told me that story about his he calls it
his dust in the wind moment. Now there's some people
who are listening. You remember that Kansas so the camel
how awkwardly? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so when Jordan told
me that, I instantly thought about two pockets. Two pockets,
(30:32):
I am but dustin ashes and the world was created
for me. And sometimes we really we we need to
reach into that pocket a little more. When the world
is telling us, hey, you're you're dust in the wind.
You are dust and ashes that we need to go huh,
Because I've got this note in the other pocket, and
(30:54):
it says the world was created for me, and I'm
going to do something. Well, I'm here. You just wait,
you just watch. Also, as you prepare your heart, there's
a better chance that as you developed inward, the outside
world is going to start to conspire to help you
find your purpose and meaning. So when I was on
that mountaintop in Alaska, I came down with a prepared heart.
(31:17):
I was looking. I was almost like an antenna to
try to figure out how I could matter, how I
could make my life meaningful. And when I met that
seven year old boy, if I didn't come to him
with that hunger, it might have just been a cool
story that I was telling to people, but it wouldn't
have fundamentally changed the direction of my life. It was
a message that moment, that miracle of meeting that boy
(31:38):
was a message for a prepared heart. Is in my
heart was that antenna that was looking for that miracle.
And so going walking through the world with a prepared
heart will also increase your chances of finding purpose and
meaning in the world. So preparing your heart, getting alone,
being quiet, turning off distractions, figuring out what your passions are.
(32:01):
Do you like to sew, do you like to paint,
Do you like to read? Do you like to Do
you like animals? Are you passionate about, you know, helping animals?
What are your passions? And then how does somebody uh
take that first step to say, Okay, I'm ready. I
think that I was meant to teach, or I believe
(32:23):
I was meant to help young children who are stuck
in the foster care system. I think I'm meant to
mentor young men so they don't end up in prison.
I'm a recovering addict of whatever, and I think I'm
supposed to help young people to navigate their life so
they don't fall into drugs or alcohol or pornography. How
do you take that first step? But what is your
(32:44):
advice to somebody who has a prepared heart? They think
they know what their passion is, Now what do they
do with it? Well, that is already the It's the
first step, and the second step, which is start where
you are, where your planet, grow, where you're planted. You
determine what your what are your talents, what are your
(33:08):
essential gifts? Then if you've identified the problem, if you
if you've identified that thing that that pulls at your heart,
that makes you come alive more than any other thing,
get really close to that problem. Learn everything that you
can about it. Look in your existing community, your family members,
(33:31):
your coworkers, your friends, start talking about how much you
care about this issue, and they might know someone who
knows someone who can connect you to a place where
you can start putting your essential talents and gifts to
work on that problem. And just keep drilling down until
(33:53):
you find that that particular part of the not that
you can take apart and and unravel. And it's as
long as you're dreaming in the light. Which is something
else that we talked about in the book Fine Partners.
You don't have to change the world all by yourself,
and as a matter of fact, you can't. You cannot
(34:13):
change the world by yourself. So dream in the light,
just start talking to people. One of our dares also
is you know the bit where you go and you
meet someone for the first time and you use instead
to sort of fill the awkward silence um that that
many of us have when when we meet a new
person will say so what do you do? Right, and
(34:37):
what we mean is what do you do to make
a living? But we're not talking about what do you
do to make a life? So we dare people. The
next time that someone says so what do you do
that you answer I'm trying to matter and then kind
of see where the conversation takes you. And the next
(34:57):
time you feel yourself getting ready to say, oh, so
what do you do, instead say if you could solve
any problem in the world, what would it be? And
I think would be surprised if we just shift our
conversations are interactions with each other, um, we we might
even start feeling more connected to the people right in
(35:20):
our midst and we might be able to team up
with people and and start working on that problem. That's
that's really animating our spirit and telling us, hey, this
is your work, this is the thing you were meant
to do. Can you imagine if when you got on
a plane people said what do you do that matters?
Or what are you doing to make the world a
(35:41):
better place? Instead of what do you do for a living?
You certainly have more interesting conversations. We no doubt believe
that well, I'm so passionate about Point Hope, the the
charity that I started almost twenty years ago, that people
don't even have a chance to talk about it anything else.
When I sit down next with them on a plane,
(36:02):
it's like, You're gonna hear about Point Hope, and I'm
going to figure out how I can use your gifts
to help kids. Uh. And I've met some amazing people.
One of our board members was sitting next to me
on a plane and you know, found out she had
all sorts of connections and she has children and she's
passionate about children. I'm like, Okay, we are so going
to tap into you, because that's how you build, that's
(36:26):
how you grow, that's dreaming in the light, that's how
you do it. And it also takes down another problem
that we have in in our country and really in
the world. We are a hyper connected society, and we're
the least connected to each other than we've ever been.
Right this the suicide rate in the United States is
(36:48):
the highest it's been in half a century. We have
a loneliness epidemic. Imagine what we could do if we
could just connect to each other on our most basic
human level, which is we all want to do something
to make the world a better place. You wouldn't You
couldn't run into another person who if you really sat down,
(37:10):
whether it's on a plane or a train, or it's
in a coffee shopping, can even be with someone you've
known for a long time, but you don't really talk
about these things. Imagine how much more connected we would
feel if we if we just started talking about how
we want to make a difference, that we remind us
that we have so much more in common then than
(37:31):
we do things that separate us. Very very true. So
you're in how many countries forty countries? Now we've distributed
glasses to over forty countries. When we started that first year,
we helped eight hundred people, and then it went to
eight thousand and eighty thousand and eight hundred thousand, and
(37:52):
this year will serve over one point four million people
in twenty three countries. That is awesome. If somebody want
to get involved with Vision Spring, if they're like, Okay,
I'm not an eye doctor, but my my father was blind,
So how can I what can I do in my community,
(38:12):
or what can I do to further this project? How
would they get in touch with you and what could
they do well? They can always get in touch with
me directly by email. It's It's Jordan's dot Cassolo at
vision spring dot org. And we're interested in people helping
in any way we can. As Jen said, we have
to dream in the light. We have to bring all
(38:33):
people into this problem. It's a billion person problem. We
need as many hands on deck as possible. And people
can get involved in a whole slew of different ways,
from as simple as it costs US less than five
dollars to serve each person with a pair of glasses.
So you can put a pair of glasses on a
child's face in Ghana, or in India or Vietnam for
(38:54):
less than five dollars. So if with a five dollar
donation we can help one person, with a hundred dollar donation,
we can help a whole classroom with children. With a
thousand dollar donation, we can help a whole school. So
what if somebody says, I don't have any money to donate,
I'm living on a budget, but I want to help.
So whatever their skills, maybe if they're a writer, they
can write an article about Vision Spring in their local newspaper,
(39:16):
or they can tell their their friends on social media
about the organization. They can help spread the word. Did
you know that the leading cause of visual impairment in
the world is that people just don't have a pair
of eyeglasses? And did you know the eyeglasses really only
cost a dollar? And if they can help just spread
that message far and wide, that is a great service
(39:36):
and a great help to our organization because most people
don't know that. They don't even think about it. Yeah,
you don't think about it. There's so many things we
don't think about. We don't think about the fact that
there are four thousand kids in foster care in America
and that only five percent will ever be adopted. We
don't think about that. We don't think about the fact
that of the boys in foster care for eighteen months
(39:57):
or longer will end up in prison. That we're just
sending them from one horrible, horrible situation to uh institution
and they'll never have a chance at a at a
good life. We don't think about that because we're busy.
We're too busy to think about it. But we need
to think about these truths when we have time. I'd
love to introduce you to a friend of mine, Ned Breslin,
(40:18):
who's one of the most dynamic social entrepreneurs addressing the
foster care situation. He's brilliant and I would love him. Well.
Thank you so much for being here for writing Dare
to Matter. Uh, you guys are wonderful. And I pray
that people take the dares. I hope they read the book,
(40:39):
and I hope that each chapter they do the dares,
and that we can get a whole nation, a whole
world of people using their gifts to change the world,
one heart at a time. Amen to that, big Amen,
Thank you so much, thank you. That's exactly why we
wrote the book. That's why I wrote my book. Then
(41:00):
that's why you wrote. My sisters like, oh my gosh,
this you gotta read this book. You got to meet
these people because they're they're doing it. They're they're changing
the world for good, and they're inviting other people to
change the world for good. And I love the fact that, Ah,
that you recognize that each person has a unique gift,
(41:22):
a unique gift, and that maybe you know yours vision
minus children. For some people, it's animals, you know, see creatures, whales,
whatever it is. Dare to Make a difference, step out,
you know, on faith and say, Okay, what can I do?
How can I how can I clean up the environment?
(41:44):
How can I leave a smaller carbon footprint? How can
I raise my children to be more loving, more engaged?
How can I get them off social media and into nature.
Everybody's got a different gift, and I love that you
you talk about that in the book, and that you
invite people to figure out what that is. But we've
all been created in the image of God. This is
(42:06):
what we learned in Genesis, which is a sacred text
to multiple religions, that it transcends everything that divides us.
Were created in in the image of God, which means
that we all have a spark of the divine in us.
And it is amazing. Imagine Just wake up in the
morning and have that be the first thing that you think.
(42:29):
The world was created for me. The world was created
for me to use my uniqueness, my divinity to change it.
I'm built this way. Just start your day that way
and see and see how it changes. We're all eternal
beings wrapped in flesh. That blows my mind. You see
(42:50):
them for what they truly are. When people call into
my show, oh, my gosh. So many people said, how
can you still do this after so many years? Aren't
you bored? I'm like, are you kidding me? Everybody's got
such a fascinating story. It's uncovering the layers of that
story that that makes my job fun on the radio.
That's because every single person you encounter is is an
(43:13):
event that will you know when they say one night only,
We're all a one night only event when when we
leave the earth there will never again be a carbon
copy of who we are. We we are so essential
to the life of this world because when we're gone,
that one special ingredient, that one miracle that we bring,
(43:37):
we take it with us, so we need to leave
it here, so we need to use it, use it.
That's right, and we all have it. Well. I'm glad
you climb the mountain Jordan's I'm glad that the earth
scream to you and its enormity. You do feel very small,
like when you fly in an airplane and you look down.
(43:57):
At first you can see the cars, then you can
only see the bill things. Then you can you can't
see individuals, and it can make you feel insignificant. I'm
glad you screamed back, Oh, I do matter, and I'm
glad you found that that sparked that gift, that passion,
and that you've changed the lives of over a million
people by giving them the gift of sight. Thank you
(44:20):
for saying that, and thank you for being bold enough
tend to partner with him and help him write the book.
It was easy to do. It was easy to do
because I was inspired by Jordan's I was inspired by
Vision Spring and in those stories, but I also saw
our story. I saw the human story in Jordan's story.
And so my dear is that everybody listening to this
(44:42):
podcast takes your dare and start saying what do you
do that matters? What do you do that impacts the world.
And when they're asked how are you or what do
you do? Or who are you? They answer from that
divinity within them and they say, I'm somebody that's changing
the world by providing vision for kids and underdeveloped countries
(45:04):
or kids right here in America. I'm somebody that cares
about our planet. I'm somebody that cares about our public
school systems that are failing our kids. I'm somebody that
cares about foster kids. Whatever it is that we start
that conversation and start engaging in what really matters. That's
the world I want to live in. All right, thank
(45:26):
you for being here. God bless you both on your
journey and the book. Pick it up, Dare to Matter.
It's available everywhere. Your path to making a difference now,
and I love that now is italicized. I love that
because because we are not promised tomorrow, we can't go
back and un do yesterday. We're given this gift of
(45:47):
today and today we can all make a difference. Let's
do it. Let's do it. Routine fo
Host
Delilah
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